CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Where the Words Are the Thing, And Trippingly

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"THE COMEDY OF ERRORS" has always been the cheap date of the Shakespearean canon: a play directors could take where they wanted and use as they would. A manic farce with an absurdly Byzantine plot and minimal psychological shading, this early product of a young playwright has mostly spawned productions that run merrily over the text like a speeding Keystone Kops car. The fact that language and characterization have tended to get lost in the traffic of the stage seems to bother no one. It isn't, after all, something that anyone ever quotes from to impress people.

Now this giddy trollop of a play is getting a little respect. The astonishment of the outdoor production of "Comedy" from Shakespeare and Company, the repertory troupe based at the Mount, the former Berkshires estate of Edith Wharton, is that the spoken lines get more laughs than the sight gags.

Though the gaudy burlesque trappings are out in force, the director John Hadden has also provided the verbal and aural equivalents of funny costumes and pratfalls: silly accents, divertingly varied rhythms of speech and vocally highlighted phrases that force us to listen. As a consequence, the play shimmers with a deeper humor and startling glimpses of melancholy that anticipate such later, richly textured works as "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Twelfth Night." And you can understand every word.

Language, as Shakespeare and Company news releases are fond of pointing out, is the unyielding cornerstone for theatrical interpretation here. Under the stalwart leadership of Tina Packer, its artistic director, and Kristin Linklater, its voice instructor, the troupe has emerged over the 17 years since its founding as a phenomenon playwrights should adore. The acting, from a mixture of professionals and students, may be uneven; the productions, occasionally ramshackle. But you never leave a performance murmuring, "What did they say?," or, "What did they mean by that?"

In principle, the company would seem to provide a sounder forum for directors than actors, and the danger of characters turning into mouthpieces isn't always gracefully bypassed. But this season (which has a roster of 18 plays, staged in four theaters) has some exceptional performances, which give equal weight to thematic intent and emotional interiors.

Jonathan Epstein, who triumphed last year as an improbably virile Puck, is equally startling as a touching, thin-skinned Macbeth. And as battling mother-daughter psychoanalysts, in Nicholas Wright's biographical drama "Mrs. Klein," Elizabeth Ingram and Tod Randolph act with such finely detailed conviction that they nearly drown out the sound of a creaking script.

The performances, of course, are broader in "The Comedy of Errors," and some of the actors merely fill their roles as commedia dell'arte-style integers. But there's some surprisingly specific characterization in this dizzy tale of two sets of twins separated at birth. As played by Michael Hammond and Dan McCleary, the well-born brothers Antipholus are physical duplicates (well, sort of) who embody contrasting approaches to their crises of mistaken identity.

Mr. Hammond, as the visiting man from Syracuse, is a wistful, fluid-thinking philosopher who reads metaphysical meanings into the chaos caused by his appearance. Mr. McCleary, on the other hand, is a wonderfully stuffy materialist who worries more about the loss of his possessions than his soul.

The two Dromios (servants to the Antipholuses) reverse the equation. Jonathan Croy plays Dromio of Syracuse as a hearty, jokey sort who thrives on anarchy and fisticuffs. Kenny Ransom's Dromio of Ephesus is comparably antic but also vulnerable, and when he complains of being used as a beast of burden by the patricians who beat him, he strikes a shockingly poignant chord. All four performances meld into a heady counterpoint, rooted in sly suggestions of the terror and exhilaration of becoming an unknown person and, without forcing the issue, the moral dubiousness of the master-servant relationship.

This "Comedy," at the open-air Mainstage amphitheater, also operates on the more conventional level of delightful delirium, with 1950's couture-style costumes in eye-popping colors, characters racing from the shadows of the woods surrounding the stage, choral reactions of hisses and cheers and, yes, a Mack Sennet chase.

And in a play filled with preachy apothegms and labored explanations, Mr. Hadden has the good sense to turn the lines into self-mocking vaudeville routines. Mr. Croy, in particular, excels at these, with a wiseacre delivery that evokes Sylvester the Cat. At the Stables Theater

"Macbeth," directed by Gary Mitchell at the smaller, indoor Stables Theater, is spottier. The cast has been costumed in black outfits, with matching kneepads, that suggest a futuristic S-M hockey team. And, taking his cue from Macbeth's assertion that "blood will have blood," Mr. Mitchell has emphasized the self-perpetuating nature of martial strife as a blood sport.

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The role of children amid the violence is unusually dominant here (Young Macduff is seen with a G.I. Joe doll), and some of the tragedy's most disturbing moments find Macbeth playing bogeyman with Banquo's son. Other devices, fine in theory, are clumsier in the execution, particularly the presentation of the witches as faceless manifestations of subconscious urges.

Much of the acting is pitched too high. (Corinna May's Lady Macbeth, played as an exaggerated geisha fatale, belongs to a more stylized form of theater.) But as the thane who would be king, Mr. Epstein creates a carefully graduated portrait of truly tragic dimensions. In the early scenes, he has an almost ingenuous quality. (When Lady Macbeth tells him his face "is as a book where men may read strange matters," we know what she means.) Anticipating the murder of Duncan, he stumbles into tears on the word "pity."

He's an unusually likable Macbeth, with whom it's easy to identify, and his subsequent progression into murderous madness may feel personally alarming to audiences. Mr. Epstein tries a little too hard to bring new readings to familiar lines. He flubs the "tomorrow and tomorrow" soliloquy. But in the broader context of this performance, it's a very venial sin.

Mr. Epstein can be seen playing a less lethal (but comparably verbose) basket case in "Laughing Wild," Christopher Durang's two-character cabaret of neurosis, directed by Kevin Coleman. This contrapuntal series of monologues and dreams, delivered by a man and woman for whom the world is all cutting edges and potential enemies, may have a limited shelf life. (Its topical references are already growing old.) But although structurally lopsided, it's a stunning example of comedy shaped by fear. Mr. Epstein and the sharp-voiced Ariel Bock are a shade too studied here -- they seem less to inhabit their characters than present them -- but they're intelligent performers who unerringly find the pathos in the humor.

Psychoanalytic angst is approached with far more gravity in "Mrs. Klein," inspired by the life of the German therapist Melanie Klein. In this drama about familial fallout from the death of Klein's son, Mr. Wright wants to have it both ways: to question psychoanalytic technique while using it as a tool for solving the play's central mysteries. It's contrived and talky in the manner of old Hollywood Freudian melodramas like "The Seventh Veil."

But as the mother and daughter who struggle futilely to see each other in strictly clincial terms, Ms. Ingram and Ms. Randolph are superb. Under the direction of Ms. Packer, they have been living with this play since they did a workshop performance of it last fall, and they have developed an intimacy with their characters that comes only with long association. The levels of consciousness and resentment they manage to pack into single sentences are dizzying. This play, a West End hit in 1988, has seldom been seen in America. These actresses make it worth visiting. At the Wharton Theater

There are also, as always, several interpretations of Wharton works, staged in the salon of the Christopher Wren-inspired house where the author played host to Walter Berry and Henry James. The most notable of these this year is a popular revival of "The Custom of the Country," directed by Dennis Krausnick from Jane Stanton Hitchcock's adaptation.

The fine-spun social complexities of Wharton's novels tend to turn into soap opera on film and stage. Ms. Hitchock's play, while a marvel of condensation, is no exception. The story of crass, ambitious Undine Spragge's ascent into socialite heaven is given a running commentary by a white-tie-clad chorus of the various men Undine done wrong. They deliver some billboard declarations about the changing nature of society, as well as steamy comments like, "I knew she would be my downfall, yet I could not keep away."

This has the effect of making the play seem like a vehicle for the young Joan Collins (had they had mini-series in those days). Mary Hartman's one-note performance captures Undine's bulldozer qualities, though not her erotic magnetism. And Robin Hynek seems closest to the spirit of the novel as Undine's garrulous, tabloid-reading mother.

The whole thing is extremely hokey and kind of fun. Besides, it was refreshing to see a play, for a change, in which people's identities seemed so certain. What's On, and When

To reach Shakespeare and Company at the Mount in Lenox, Mass., by car from the New York metropolitan area, take the Saw Mill River Parkway or the Hutchinson River Parkway to Route 684 and continue north on Route 22; pick up Route 23 east and continue to Route 7, which takes you north into Stockbridge, Mass. In Stockbridge, continue on Route 7 into Lenox to Plunkett Street (watch for a blue highway sign on the right) and turn right at traffic light. The Mount is immediately on the right. By bus, the Bonanaza Bus Line operates three buses daily to Lenox, Mass. Departures from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan are from Gate No. 13 at 8:45 A.M., 2:15 P.M. and 5:15 P.M.; return buses leave from Lenox at 8:40 A.M., 10:55 A.M. and 5:10 P.M. Round-trip tickets, at $50 ($25 for children 5 to 11), can be purchased at the Trailways counter; the ride is free for those 4 and younger) The bus stop in Lenox is on Housatonic Street, which is a short walk from the Mount. Bus information: (800) 556-3815. Mount information: (413) 637-1199. Here is a schedule of the plays mentioned in the accompanying Critic's Notebook. OUTDOOR MAINSTAGE THEATER: Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" continues today through Sunday; Tuesday to Aug. 14; Aug. 16; Aug. 18 to 20; Aug. 23; and Aug. 25 to 27. Performances are at 8 P.M. and are subject to weather conditions. Tickets: $19.50 to $29.50 ($17.50 to $22.50 for students, children and the elderly). On Thursday evenings, admission is free for children 18 and younger, when accompanied by an adult with a paid admission. STABLES THEATER: "Mrs. Klein" can be seen tomorrow, Sunday, Thursday and Aug. 14, 18, 20, 24 and 27; all at 4 P.M. "Laughing Wild" runs today, tomorrow and on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 13, 17, 20, 21, 25 and 26; all at 4 P.M. "Macbeth" will be performed today, Sunday and on Tuesday, Thursday Aug. 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 23, 26 and 27; all at 8:30 P.M. Tickets to "Macbeth" are $22.50 and $27.50 ($20.25 for students, children and the elderly). Tickets to "Mrs. Klein" and "Laughing Wild" are $19.50 and $22.50 ($17.50 and $20.25 for students, children and the elderly). WHARTON THEATER: "The Custom of the Country" will be performed at 3 P.M. tomorrow, Thursday and on Aug. 13, 18, 21, 24 and 27. Tickets: $19.50 and $22.50 ($17.50 and $20.25 for students, children and the elderly). Many performances are sold out, but returned tickets are often available a half-hour before the show.

A version of this review appears in print on August 5, 1994, on Page C00001 of the National edition with the headline: CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; Where the Words Are the Thing, And Trippingly. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe